Paint - The Final Color Selection Part 2

We only have three paint colors in the house right now. That might change when we've lived in it for a while, but for now this is a good safe start. Gray in the majority of the house, a different color in Addison's bedroom and bathroom and the third color in our master bedroom.

Addison's nursery at our last house was blue-ish green. In the mornings and mid-day it looked extremely blue but in the evenings it would show its green tint. It was called Sea Glass and it was fun and energetic but not extremely in your face. I don't know what it is about a little girl's room painted a shade of blue but I tend to drift towards it for her walls. My original inspiration photo for Addison's room came from Edie's blog and her daughters' shared bedroom:

I love it. I love it. I love it.

I might be straight up copying it. Which is awful for an interior designer. Where's the creativity in that? We'll see where things go but don't be surprised if that Serena & Lily comforter makes an appearance. Or a starburst mirror. I already bought a gray/white chevron rug on clearance in July right after we bought the house for her room. I have a whole chevron drama post coming at some point for your utter enjoyment.

The color of the walls in that room are Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. I pulled that color, along with some similar swatches and found the Sea Salt was just "off" for the rest of the house and the rest of the color palette. It was beautiful, until I held it up with everything else and then it looked dirty. The color I ended up selecting and color matching was from Home Depot's Home Decorators Collection. It's called Wind Fresh White and doesn't appear to be white at all. It's extremely close to the Sea Salt but doesn't have quite the taupe undertone. So yet again, another blue-green color for Addison, just a little more refined, a little more "big girl" this time.

 

These photos were taken at night, while the room was being painted so it's hard to see the color. It needs a second coat just like the kitchen, which I'm hoping to get on quickly (maybe tomorrow?!) in order to be able to start getting her room ready for move in. The less it smells and the more it feels like home when she starts sleeping there on Friday the better. I'll have nothing ready in terms of her "big girl room" but I think it'll make the transition a little easier on our girl if it feels less like a construction zone and more like her room.

 

The wall color is also an almost exact match to the glass wall tile I am installing in her shower/bath. Please excuse the unflattering photo of me. This photo is reason #96 I am re-kick starting my exercise and clean diet once we're moved in.

 



This tile is really pretty (while it doesn't look that way here). Once it's all up, grouted and cleaned I think it's going to look pretty nice. It's extremely thin which has made the installation go pretty smoothly. Because these glass tiles are half the thickness of most, the weight of the sheets hasn't been an issue and it seems to be moving along nicely.

The floor tile and this wall tile have to be finished this evening in order for her bathtub to be refinished tomorrow afternoon. Once that is done, we'll grout, paint and install her vanity. Then the plumber can get it all hooked up and we will have a functioning bathroom. Hopefully ours won't be terribly far behind.

Movers come tomorrow to get us out of the apartment before the end of the month. More posts to come on Friday.

Paint - The Final Color Selection Part 1

Yesterday morning while Paul and I were at work, my father-in-law painted the dining room and bonus room ceilings and touched up any other ceiling spots that looked slightly blotchy. We all had lunch together at our all time favorite burger joint, made a pit stop at the paint store and then he proceeded to paint the kitchen.

Our kitchen and the majority of the house is going to be painted Sherwin Williams Repose Gray (SW7015). Back in the fall and early December, I started looking at every possibly gray paint in the world. Benjamin Moore, Pratt & Lambert, Sherwin Williams, Behr, Valspar, Farrow & Ball, the list goes on and on. I'm on the gray paint train baby. I love it. Maybe because I'm so tired of seeing builder beige. Or maybe, because I just love gray.  So, after looking at hundreds of gray paint swatches and comparing them with fabrics and under different lighting conditions I settled on the truest "gray" I could find. It's in the cooler family, not warm or "french gray" at all. It doesn't seem to read blue, or green or tan. It's just gray. I especially like this whole tint/shade group which includes Eider White, Repose Gray, Mindful Gray, Dorian Gray, Dovetail, Gauntlet Gray (one of my favorites) and Black Fox.

The kitchen needs some touch up but overall looks really clean and classy. We went ahead and bought a five gallon bucket last night of more of the same color to start on the rest of the house, at some point that is. The Living Room, Dining Room, Bonus Room, Stairway, Guest Rooms and our Sitting Room are all this color. At least for now.

We met for dinner, dropped Addison off with our wonderful friends and then got back to work for the evening.

Crunch Time

We are officially in crunch time. It's going to be tight, if not behind. We're resolved to that fact. We'll be moving in without it fully finished like we had hoped and dreamed. There will still be tasks to complete, items to check off.

 

 

Friday, Paul took the day off and with the help of his dad who flew in from Michigan, began the finish work for the house. Since Friday, we have primed 8,000 square feet of drywall, painted the ceilings, laid down the tile floor underlayment, installed the window bench in the kitchen, tiled the master bath and half of the kid's bath.

Big plans for the rest of this week. The electrician is at the house as we speak I write, wiring up all of our outlets, replacing the service to the house and hopefully after lunch installing all the light fixtures and maybe the island vent hood - Eek! Maybe all that can be accomplished by the time the snow gets here today.

We also have to tile the master shower, the kids bathtub/shower, finish their tile floor and tile the entire kitchen and bonus room. It's going to be a busy couple of days. I'll try to keep you guys posted this week as we finish up and move.

Cabinet Delivery and Installation

If you are friends with either one of us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, you've already seen our cabinets. This is just the long and lengthy post full of pictures (and more words) about those very same cabinets. That is how excited I am, people.

The cabinets were delivered to the house last Friday afternoon and after quite the show watching the two guys figure out the best way to get the cabinets into the house, including backing their truck up into our yard, they were all sitting peacefully in our dining room. Nineteen of them among end panels, crown molding, shoe mold, and shelves, the room was pretty full. But I was so anxious I started digging around to see the color.

We let them sit for the evening, but Saturday morning, we found a babysitter and Paul and I dove straight in to installing the cabinets.

At our last house, we paid for installation of the cabinets when we remodeled our kitchen. It wasn't very much and it seemed like the smart way to go. Installing cabinets was going to take us forever. I happened to be at home briefly while they were installing them and I thought, "I could have done this...grumble grumble..." as I watched my money go out the door. They did a great job, but with Paul and I's capabilities, it was absolutely something we could have done.

So we decided at this house, to save some money and do them ourselves. Just to make sure we were entirely aware of what we were getting into, we watched a couple of the This Old House videos and did some research to make sure our method was the fastest but most reliable way in a house where nothing is level and nothing is plumb.

We marked off the wall, basically drawing our cabinet layout directly onto the gyp board. Seemed silly since we knew exactly where everything was going but it was crucial to making sure everything fit correctly and that we could locate the studs.

We did the upper cabinet first so they base cabinet wouldn't be in our way. We marked our studs, lined up our cabinet (seated nicely on a ledger board we installed) and started to install. And we missed the stud.

Frick and frack.

Thankfully, we were both in a pleasant mood so we re-measured, re-located and then got the cabinet installed without any tears or angry words.

Once it was installed, the other cabinets started lining up against the wall. Because our dishwasher sits on top of the tile floor (yet to be installed) as does the refrigerator, we had to make sure we accounted for the thickness of the floor when installing our base cabinets. That way, the top of the dishwasher would clear the underside of the counter when it was 1/2" higher sitting on the tile. So each base cabinet is set on two long strips of 1/2" plywood that were all leveled all the way across using shims. (I should have been taking better install pictures...but we're in crunch time here). So this is where we left it Saturday afternoon:

Moving the double oven cabinet and the pantry proved to be quite a feat. For one they are large, we didn't want to damage any of our newly finished gyp walls and corners and they are also pretty heavy. After a quick video research bunny trail, we figured out how to release our Blum motion drawer glides and take all of the drawers out. Made moving these extremely heavy cabinets a little bit easier.

Since we are trying to push for such a quick finish date, we installed all the cabinets that needed to be used for template creation for counters first. One entire wall has no counter on it and the window bench could wait. The island, sink wall and master bath vanity were crucial.

After the kitchen cabinets were set (the ones requiring the counters) Paul moved upstairs and installed the master bath vanity. Our master bath is not huge. It's ours and only ours, which is a first for Paul and I and due to some last minute money saving changes, we chose not to relocate the toilet and vanity (switching their locations). It was going to cost more money and more time, neither of which we had/have. Nothing was wrong with the placement of the two items, they just weren't where I would have placed them. But it wasn't a game changer (I mean at this point, there really isn't much that can be considered a game changer, the match is almost done). Because of this, my original vanity plan fell through. Our original vanity was going to be twice as large as it ended up being and was going to have two sinks.

I had already placed the order for our cabinets and it was too late to add another cabinet onto the order. By the time I knew for certain I needed a smaller cabinet, it was also too late to order for their expected lead time. So I started researching the vanity cabinets you see all over the place. Ridiculously expensive. And not all of them are very attractive. Of course the ones I liked were astronomically priced.

I was also starting to become concerned with continuity. The kids bathroom has this vanity from Ikea. But I kind of want our bathroom millwork to tie into the same stuff that is in the kitchen. Even if I had to fake it a little. So we purchased a cabinet locally, unfinished, cut out for the plumbing and installed. All this means is, I have to take some time to prime and paint it.

So, the counter cabinets were placed and ready for templates. Which happened yesterday. Which means now we can move on to finishing the other cabinets.  We spent two hours last night, in the dark and cold loading three very large piles of sheetrock scraps into a dumpster. We wanted it off the ground before it rained/snowed and became impossible to pick up.

Tonight Paul starts priming the upstairs for paint! Eek! That is amazing news. The remaining stacked upper cabinets and the window bench will probably wait until this weekend to be installed, again since they aren't critical items. We have to make sure we follow the smartest "critical path" method in order to get everyone in and out on time.

Here's some information about our cabinets. I spent a couple of weeks laying out what I wanted in the kitchen, once we had it nailed down we got quotes for five different routes. The five quotes ranged from $9,500 to $19,000. In the end we went with the second cheapest option. We ended up getting everything we wanted (soft close doors/drawers, trash pull out cabinet, roll out trays in every cabinet, window bench, end panels, good quality, etc.) and the delivery for the company was $50 vs. the $200 the other companies offered. And some of the other companies couldn't provide a window bench or the roll out trays and they we're still more expensive. So far, I'm very pleased with the cabinets. The quality is on par with what I specify regularly and the finish is beautiful. The company is Cardell, they are manufactured in Texas, meet all testing standards and are approved by KCMA for assembly and environmental approaches. They have dealers all over the US, and in Oklahoma City we used Cabinet Outlet to order and deliver them for us.

Once we're fully done with the kitchen, I'll write another post about our layout, our somewhat small aisle clearances and sources for everything!

The Pipes

Plumbing for Six Twelve, like everything else has been fully replaced. Well, mostly replaced. Vent stacks stayed, we just tied new pipes into them. But all others, drain pipes and water supply, are all new and approved by the City. Also, we REALLY recommend our plumber, Anthony with Exeter Enterprises. Let us know if you want his contact information. The City inspector was very impressed with his work, and we couldn't be happier about the speed and price at which he and his guys did the work.

We chose to use PEX for the water supplies and the standard PVC for drains. PEX is great in new construction and gut rehabs because it allows you to run a dedicated pipe to each fixture instead of branching off as you go. This should keep water pressure similar for each fixture and allow the tankless water heater to work more efficiently (more on the tankless later). The brains of the PEX, you might call it, are located in the basement at the water supply and the water heater. Each line comes out of a manifold, a circuit breaker for water, if you will. This allows us to turn off the water to a fixture in the basement for easy repairs if necessary. The last two pictures below show off the manifold.

About that City approval though. Getting to that point was a nightmare. As you may know, I wrote a long post permitting in general a while ago (Permits? Permits? We Don't Need to Stinking Permits!). Since that time, we've had to work through a variety of issues to get our plumbing approved and the necessary approvals given to ONG so that we may have gas service to the house.

Last week, after an administrative snafu in which the electronic processing wasn't completed, we had a "rough" inspection scheduled for a Friday. However, when the inspector showed up, he thought he couldn't find the lock box and rejected the inspection outright. After some screaming and shouting on Twitter and via email, that was rectified and we were inspected the same day. The City really came through on that, because it allowed our drywall subcontractor to finish the ceilings and walls that weekend.

Another brief update...

We are in the final stretch before our February 28th deadline.

I promise updates are to come, but we really haven't been at the house very much because the drywall crew is finishing up. The house looks like a brand new home. Still has the charm and character of the old house, but smooth walls, no major foundation issue cracks glaring at us, no popped canvas coating or chipping skim coat. It's an incredible transformation.

Paul and his parents picked up our 2,800 3,250 lbs of tile on Monday and brought it all inside the house.

Things are going to start getting insanely busy on Friday evening.

Our cabinets get delivered Friday afternoon, which is sort of thrilling! I can't wait to see them.

Again, updates and pictures to come soon.

Progressing

Drywall has been progressing. The 1/4" drywall was delivered yesterday. When we arrived at the house in the afternoon, there were 6 vehicles and who knows how many workers loading it into the house. When Paul swung by the house this morning he noticed they'd applied quite a bit of the 1/4" to the second floor already.

We're awaiting our plumbing rough-in inspection. Once that passes, we'll screw down the subfloors in the bathrooms, push any of the misplaced insulation back into the wall cavities and let the drywall crew have at the bathrooms.

Furniture/Art/Style

There have been a lot of tempting pieces of furniture and artwork out there as we finish up work on the house. A new bed here, a new chair there. A new painting, etc.

And I know I've mentioned how much I hate selecting art before, and how I was in a stupor when picking finishes but I haven't been willing to pull the trigger on almost anything for the house. For one, I am running out of room to store things as our appliances are dominating the majority of floor space in our garage.

Just a few nights ago, I was reading from a new book I picked up and smirked to myself while reading the following paragraph:

"Our furniture, he reflected, says so much about us, and our tastes - perhaps more than we like to acknowledge. We may not like a piece of furniture now, but the awkward fact remains that we once were a person who liked it. And unlike clothes, which are jettisoned with passing fashion, furniture has a habit of staying with us, reminding us of tasteless stages of our lives. William looked at his settee; he had bought it at a furniture shop off the Tottenham Court Road - he remembered that much - but he would never buy something like that now. And certainly not in that colour. Did they sill make mauve furniture? he wondered."

And here is the reason I don't want to buy a single thing. Because one day I'm going to look back and wonder, do they still make turquoise velvet arm chairs? And the answer will inevitably be no.

Drywall is here! Drywall is here!

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you....DRYWALL!

Can you hear the "ooohs and ahhhs" and circus style screams of excitement coming from me?!

Our drywallers started this week after a minor (but major) delay.

We have a drywall crew working any and every hour they are willing to work to get our job complete. They have 24/7 access to the house and have been using that to their full advantage already. The contractor overseeing the drywall crew told us he has no idea when his guys sleep, apparently, the money is too good to turn down a job. I'm not complaining.

Getting to drywall has been a major event. There were thousands of tasks that had to be done before we could seal up the walls. Electrical, plumbing, clean up, nail pulling, removing trim, removing window aprons, etc. It was a chore.

While there are hundreds of tasks still to be completed on our job, with the drywall crew working all hours of the evenings and weekends, we are trying to stay out of their way as much as possible. So, we've been spending little time at the house, working on other neglected things and completing our shopping list for the final push.